I'm wearing new shoes!

Hey y'all.
Since you all begged for a new blog entry, here it is.

Where to begin... On Sunday we got up early to go to the flea market. It was pretty interesting. For the Mantorville people, think Marigold Days but wayyy more crowded. It was rows and rows of vendors and tons of people. I didn't buy anything but we did laugh a lot at the sights. After the flea market we went to a cafe and I had my first Italian donut. It was amazing.

On Monday I made my first trip alone downtown. I had to buy shoes for calcio, so after my class I got on the bus to downtown. I first went to Athlete's world and looked at some pairs, but they were all over €65 so I went to foot locker but they didn't have my size. I ended up going to Nike, Adidas and some other smaller store before heading back to Athletes world and I found a sweet pair in the sales section. I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

Wednesday was probably one of the best days of my life thus far. It started with getting up at 6a.m. to go to the Vatican and get in line to see the Papal Audience. It was my first time in the Vatican and it was beautiful. We had to go through security, and then we sat in a big hall waiting for the Pope for about 2 hours. The place was filled with different groups of people. When the Pope came out, I didn't know if it was going to be like church and everyone would just stay calm or what, but instead, everyone got up and started clapping and shouting, it was great. And Joe was loving it. He was like yeah, yeah!! and he put his arms up like ok enough, enough, and he was blowing kisses and having the time of his life. He looked really frail, but he was having a good time.

After the crowd quieted down, he started his speech, first in Italian, and then in like 8 other languages. At the beginning of whichever language he was about to do, a priest that spoke that language would come up and announce the groups that were there who spoke the language. Whenever they would announce a group, they would stand up and sing their school song, or for the Nigerians and Chileans, a typical song from their country. It was very unexpected but very cool. We didn't have a song planned, but we did stand up and clap, and at the end of the Joey's English speech, he said he specially blessed all the students and faculty of Loyola Chicago's Rome Campus. One of the groups from Asia did a dance routine right up on the stage in lieu of singing a song. It was so weird, yet fascinating, yet mind boggling. All of a sudden this techno dance party music comes on, and all these little Chinese boys run out on stage, literally RIGHT next to the Joemeister, and they did human pyramids and juggling and Joe was loving it. It was the only routine that he clapped for!

As if my could've gotten any better after the Pope, Wednesday night was my first Calcio game! I got on my new shoes and my old KM soccer shorts and we had to walk all the way to the fields, which already had me winded, but luckily I had about an hour before my game, during which I cheered on Anna and Manak in their games.

All of Calcio is just for fun, and nobody really has any great soccer ability, so it was hilarious. I cheered on people who I didn't know, and we all sang songs together and it was just great. My team played the Maroon team, and I played defense, goalie, and offense. I love my team, and we already have one win under our belts! During the game, all my friends were cheering me on, and doing KM cheers too. Between laughing and running, I was pretty much dying on the field. I called a personal foul on this girl who grabbed me, and then at halftime I purposely ran into her and told her to watch out. I put my arms out like "what are you gonna do about it??" It was fun. After the games, all the teams went to the local pizzeria, what I call Angela's, for pizza and beer. A great ending to a great day.

Oy vey this is getting long, but I just have to tell about one more day.

Since we had the Papal Audience on Wednesday, we had to have Friday classes this week. My only class was Architecture, and it was on-site. We went to the first church ever dedicated to Mary, Santa Maria in Trastevere. We had to sit at the fountain once again, and draw the church. I had previously like the professor, Giovanna, but yesterday made me not like her so much. She was walking around, giving people advice and what not, and she came up to me and said I was being too detailed by drawing the lines on the windows, and I was like, uh, are you kidding me?!? Dana had drawn stick figures for the statues!!! But heaven forbid she look at Dana's drawing! Giovanna almost ripped my drawing out of my sketchbook, and since then I'm not too fond of her. It's a good drawing I think!! I'll put it on here once I figure out how to work this scanner. At the second church, Santa Cecilia, she had everyone lay their drawings out on the fountain and she went around judging them all. At one she said "don't get offended, but..." and pretty much said it looked like a pile of you know what. I still talk about Giovanna like we're best friends/ lovers (what's new?), but unless she gets an attitude change about our lack of drawing ability, she's not my favorite anymore.

That should just about cover my life up until now. I went shopping yesterday, got 3 shirts for only 20 euro!

Take care, Ciao, arrivaderci, etc.